Available Formats
The Island of Mists and Miracles: From the bestselling author of The Mad Womens Ball
By (Author) Victoria Mas
Translated by Frank Wynne
Transworld Publishers Ltd
Doubleday
14th April 2024
14th March 2024
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Fiction in translation
Narrative theme: Sense of place
Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary
Hardback
224
Width 143mm, Height 223mm, Spine 22mm
334g
From the author of the international bestseller, The Mad Women's Ball, a hugely atmospheric novel for fans of Elizabeth Strout and Annie E Proulx. Sometimes the truth lies in the things you cannot see. In 1830 a young novice called Catherine Laboure was granted a vision of the Virgin Mary. Nearly 200 years later, Sister Anne is also waiting for a sign. Which is why she accepts a mission to go to a tiny community on an island just off the coast of Brittany. Her only companion there is a sceptical, chain-smoking older nun who just wants to be left in peace. On the island she meets Hugo, the son of a devout family who prefers to look for the meaning of life amid the stars; Madenn, a grandmother whose daughter was killed in a crash and who finds meaning in routine; Isaac, Madenn's grandson, an otherworldly teenager who doesn't fit in but who befriends Hugo, and Julia, a sickly child. If anyone needs a miracle, it is her. But it is not Sister Anne who receives a vision. Instead it is Isaac who is found on a promontary, transfixed, unable to utter more than the words 'I see'. The event soon becomes headline news and the world descends on the small island, opening old wounds and unleashing a chain of events none of them could have foreseen.
The Mad Women's Ball, Victoria Mas's debut novel, has won several prizes in France (including the Prix Stanislas and Prix Renaudot des Lyceens) and was the bestselling debut of the year. Victoria has worked in film in the United States, where she lived for eight years. She graduated from the Sorbonne in Contemporary Literature.The Mad Women's Ball is now an Amazon Prime Video Original Film starring Melanie Laurent and Lou de Lou ge.